“Wow, Johnny Winter sounds great,” said Danielle Rogers, a board member and past president for the event. “We’re so glad that Johnny Winter is here and sounding wonderful.”

Soars also won cheers from the all-ages crowd when he and his band, The Red Hots, launched into guitar-heavy blues. Soars gave a vocal performance that resembled the impressive, mid-range phrasings of Howlin’ Wolf, and when he strapped on a cigar-box guitar, the audience’s shouts and claps grew louder.

“This here is a guitar my brother and I made, and it has two strings,” a smiling Soars told the crowd. “I’m going to see if I can play it for you now. You guys might have to join in and help me make some blues noise.”

Bids on one of Soars’ cigar-box guitars were accepted throughout the evening, with a $400 bid being announced at 8 p.m. During sets by Interstate Buffalo and the Terry Quiett Band, small children in orange T-shirts and gray shorts tossed a Frisbee near the VIP food tent.

“I just love the music here,” said Kayla Mabry of Fort Smith. “The music, the outdoors and just the space.”

Mabry, who has attended past blues festivals, called this year’s special.

“I’m not here to see a specific artist, because I like all of them,” she said as two young girls stood near and took turns shaking a pink tambourine. “I love blues music, and I love all kinds of other music.”

Dalton King of Greenwood and Tanner Fritsche of Booneville were named the latest recipients of the festival’s Barry Ratliff Memorial Scholarship. The two each were given $1,000 music scholarships to help pay for music-related classes in college.

“We’re so excited to give these scholarships, but we don’t have enough applicants each year, unfortunately,” Dan Stoner, a festival board member said. “We want to get the word out for music majors to apply at www.riverfrontbluesfest.org.”

“Yes, and it doesn’t matter if the applicant is from Arkansas, Oklahahoma or even California,” added Chad Kennedy, a former president for the festival. “Anyone who is a music major can apply for this scholarship program.”

The festival’s annual Bill Neumeier Music Award was given posthumously to Dick Renko, an area musician, businessman, concert promoter and manager for the Grammy Award-nominated Trout Fishing in America. Renko, who passed away in April, was a co-founder of the blues festival and a former promoter for Second Street Live. Renko’s son, David Renko, accepted the award on his father’s behalf.

“It’s a great festival this year,” Rogers said while members of Oreo Blue visited with other musicians backstage. “I’d say there’s about 3,000 people out there now watching Johnny Winter, and that’s terrific. It’s the biggest crowd we’ve had here since we had Jonny Lang (in 2008). It’s a really good night tonight.”